July 9, 2007

Make up your mind, Lil Mayor Luke

Should or shouldn't a mayor of the City of Pittsburgh be expected to man up and show up when they're invited to controversial Council meetings?

Apparently Luke Ravenstahl sang a different tune back when he was on City Council:

WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo dug through the archives and found that Ravenstahl attacked former mayor Tom Murphy for missing a Council session in 2004.

[snip]

Then-City Councilman Ravenstahl called it "shameful" when Murphy did not come before Council to talk about Ravenstahl's 2004 bill to lower the parking tax.

"These are troubling times for the city of Pittsburgh and for the mayor of the city or somebody to represent his administration not to come to the table on such serious issues is regrettable, shameful," Ravenstahl said in 1994.

Murphy did face off in Council two months later over the money crunch.

At that meeting, Ravenstahl cited Murphy's clashes with state lawmakers and asked Murphy if he'd resign.

"Basically throw yourself out there and say, 'I saved the city,'" Ravenstahl said in 1994. "If they say, 'We're to ask you to step aside.' It's not that I'm asking for that, I'm just wondering."

Murphy told Ravenstahl he'd quit only if people making personality clashes an issue quit too.

"That we would stand together and they would sacrifice their political careers with me, to say for the betterment of this region we would all resign," Murphy said in 2004. "If that would happen, I'd be happy to do it."

You can read all about it at thepittsburghchannel. It was on today's 6:00 PM news. The newcast mentions that Ravnestahl was "out of town" when they looked for a comment from him.

You'll also want to check out Bob Mayo's blog from today which goes over in loving detail the times that Pittsburgh Mayors have braved public ire at City Council meetings.

I have to say KUDOS to Mr. Mayo. I did a google search last week to try to find examples of Mayors attending past Council hearings and came up with a big NOTHING, so it looks like Mayo did some REAL digging on this one.

Typical of Mayor Ravenstahl. When there's work to be done for the city of Pittsburgh, he runs off, says "I'm the Mayor of Pittsburgh," plays golf with famous people, and hides out in the woods. The guy is a total poser.

He should've been at the meeting. Even Murphy sat through meetings with people that were enraged with him over the stadium deals. He even showed up in the Council chambers...I said it earlier today, but it's worth repeating, Luke Ravenstahl is worse than Murphy. I never thought I'd be able to say that in my life time--let alone less than two years after Murphy left office.